


.(U> H9 



E 340 
.C5 H9 
Copy 1 



LIFE AND SERVICES OF 

HENRY CLAY. 






ADDRESS OF CARLETON HUNT. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow- Citizens: 

The memory of a truly great man lives on in example and 
instruction. It never dies. Nearly forty years have passed 
away since I followed the grand marshal as one of his aids, 
on the occasion of the finest pageant New Orleans has wit- 
nessed, when the colossal statue of Henry Clay by Joel T. 
Hart, about to be erected on the spot where I am now stand- 
ing, on the mound raised m the middle of Lafayette Square, 
was unveiled on Canal street, at the intersection of that thor- 
oughfare with St. Charles and Royal streets. Since that time 
a mighty Revolution has swept over the country. Slavery 
has been abolished. State after State has been added to the 
Union. The flag of the Republic has been carried in triumph 
on land and sea through a foreign war, and has been planted 
in the most distant parts of the earth. A generation has 
come and gone, and my dear kinsman and preceptor in the 
law*, who pronounced the oration, has after a distinguished 
professional career at the bar, of varied and difficult employ- 
ments, and after tilling high office at home and abroad, 
been gathered to his honored fathers. The memory of Henry 
Clay not only survives, but is as green and fresh as it was 
at the time to which I have referred. His name has very 
recently been chosen for undying honors by a body composed 
of Governors of States, Supreme Court Judges, Presidents of 
Universities and of Colleges, Publicists, Professors of History 
and Science, Authors and Editors, as one of the first twenty 

♦William Uenry Hunt. Judge U. S. Court of Claims, Secretary of the 
Navy in the cabinet of President Gartield, and Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia. 



nine illustrious native-born Americans to be inscribed in the 
Temple of Fame, on the heights which overlook the city of 
New York, itself the proudest monument of the Union of the 
States. 

The removal of the statue of Mr. Clay to the square which 
bears the name, consecrated in the alTections ot all true 
Americans, of Lafayette, has taken place by order of the 
city authorities of New Orleans, owing to the congested con- 
dition of Canal street, now virtually abandoned to street 
cars, and is designed to preserve the monument for all 
time as it ou^'ht to be, in a preferable locality, facing the 
City Hall, in the midst of the suitable surroundings att'orded 
by these grounds, with their walks, trees, plants and 
beautiful flowers. The present dedication of the corner stone 
for a new pedestal, has proceeded by direction of a com- 
mittee of the Common Council, under a resolution of that 
body pa.ssed to do honor to the memory of the great American 
statesman. The stone has now been laid in the presence of 
this concourse of the people, by his Honor the Mayor of 
New Orleans, assisted by the Most Worshipful Orand Master 
of the Ancient Masonic order, who has been accompanied to 
this place by a Past Grand Master and by the Right 
Worshipful Grand Secretarj-. The part assigned to me in the 
exercises of the day will, as 1 think, be best discharged by 
passing in review as rapidly as is consistent with the character 
of an event in many ways so memorable, the life and services 
of Mr. Clay. 

Henry Clay was born in Hanover county, Virginia, April 
12, 1777. His father, John Clay, a Baptist clergynian, was 
a person of considerable talents and of high respectability, 
remarkable for his tine voice and delivery. Henry Clay's 
mother was a woman of exemplary qualities and of patriotic 
spirit. He went to school in a neighborhood known as " the 
Slashes," near Richmond, in a log house, where Peter Deacon 
was master. In after years, when he was a candidate to be 
President, and enjoyed a degree of popularity which is almost 
indescribable, his picture was constantly to be seen as " the 
mill boy of the Slashes,^' riding the family horse, with nothing 
but a grain sack for a saddle, on his errands to and from the 
neighboring mill. From having gone to the then distant State 



of Kentucky to live, he acquired from his fond and enthusiastic 
followers the name of ^^ Harry of the West,^^ which was car- 
ried with acclamations, as no other has been before or since, 
far and wide throughout the valley of the Mississippi. Mrs. 
Clay having, upon her husband's death, married Captain 
Henry Watkins, Henry Clay was at fourteen made "boy 
behind the counter" in the retail store at Richmond of 
Richard Denny, but Captain Watkins haviug found the way 
through Colonel Tinsley, a member of the House of Bur- 
gesses of the State of Virginia, to a place for Clay in the 
clerk's office of the High Court of Chancery, he was selected 
by George Wythe to be his amanuensis. 

Contact with the men of the Revolution was of inestimable 
advantage to those of the next generation. Love of Civil 
Liberty ; the necessity for united effort in order to secure it; 
knowledge of the principles of free government ; the sacri- 
fices made to achieve it ; the exalted leadership under which 
the great cause proceeded, and the homage accorded to service 
on the patriot side, all contributed to develop for the men of 
the period a national character of extraordinary strength and 
purity, and served also to communicate- inspiration to the 
young whose privilege it was to grow up under its influence. 
The benefit which a nature so devoted as that of Clay must 
have derived from association with Chancellor Wythe, can 
with difficulty be measured. Educated at the venerable college 
of William and Mary, Wythe rose to be Professor of Law there 
himself. Among the students in his office he had taught 
Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. He had aided Jeffer- 
son in revising the laws of Virginia, he had drawn the remon- 
strance against the Stamp Act to the British Parliament, and 
had secured for himself the imperishable honor of being one 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was a 
member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of 
the United States, and a warmest advocate of it in the State 
of Virginia. Coming into the Profession of the law under 
this illustrious teacher, Mr. Clay formed the acquaintance 
of Spencer Roane, of John Marshall and of Bushrod Wash-, 
ington, and heard Patrick Henry speak. Through Chancellor 
Wythe, Mr. Clay was admitted to the office of Attorney 
General Brooke, and one year later 1797 removed from 



Kiehmond and established himself iu Lexinfrton, Keutueky, 
whei'e there was already a peuerous aud most interesting so- 
ciety, which opened its arms to receive him, and cherished 
him with unswerving fidelity throughout the varying scenes 
of his bng public career. Beginning the practice of Law in 
Kentucky, he took position at once in the front rank at the 
Bar. 

In common with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mar- 
shall, Mercer, and a number more of the first statesmen ot 
the South, Mr. Clay thought slavery not only an evil, but 
a deep stain upon the character of our country, and ardently 
hoped for its extinction. lie considered that an attempt to 
carry it where nature had pronounced its doom, was against 
good conscience, and he was an active friend to emancipation. 
January 29, 1850, in the debate which arose in the Senate when 
he presented a series of Resolutions which afterwards assumed 
the form of the Compromise measures of that year, he said 
in the course of the colloquy which took place between Jeffer- 
son Davis and himself, the former having challenged him to 
immediate discussion: " And now, Sir, coming from a slave 
" State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to 
" the subject, to say that no earthly power could induce me to 
'* vote for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery 
" where it had not before existed, either south or north of 
" that line. Coming as I do from a slave State, it is my sol- 
" emn. deliberate and well matured determination that no 
' power, no earthly power, shall compel me to vote for the 
" positive introduction of slavery either south or north of 
" that line." 

Immediately on settling in Lexington, he entered actively 
into the canvass to elect an anti-slavery State Constitutional 
Convention. Whenever a slave brought suit for freedom 
Clay would volunteer his professional services. He got to be 
considered not only as the friend of the slave but also as the 
supporter of the cause of liberty itself. He began his politi- 
cal life as a Republican, and joined the National Republican 
.Party, when it trained under the victorious banner of Jeffer- 
son. His spirit caught fire in the concussions of the time, 
and led him into active opposition to the alien and sedition 
laws. Having become partially unpopular from his anti 



slavery course, his strength before the people seems to have 
been readily recovered in this way. 

The alien law approved June 25, 1798, authorized the 
President at any time during its continuance to order all 
such aliens as he deemed dangerous, or had reasonable 
grounds to suspect of treasonable or secret machinations, to 
depart from the United States, subject, however, to the dis- 
cretion of the President to license the remaining in the 
country of those aliens he deemed harmless. The law was 
to last two years. The second alien Act approved July 6, 
1798, authorized the President on the breaking out of war, to 
enforce the apprehension, restraint and removal of any alien 
enemies. The Courts were empowered to enforce such re- 
moval, or to exact security for good conduct. 

The sedition Act of July 14, 1798, was entitled "An Act 
in addition to the act, entitled ' An Act for the punish- 
ment of certain crimes against the United States,' " 
and provided for the punishment by fine and impris- 
onment of any persons combining or conspiring to op- 
pose measures of the government, or to impede any law of 
the United States, or to intimidate any person engaged in 
doing duty as an officer of the United States. Section 2 pro- 
vided, that if any one should print or publish, or utter, or 
aid in writing or publishing false and malicious writings 
against the United States, or either house, or the President, 
to bring them into contempt, or to excite against them the 
hatred of the people, or to stir up sedition, he should be fined 
and imprisoned not exceeding two years. 

The ardor and effect with which Mr. Clay attacked these laws 
in public speeches were such, that he and George Nicholas, 
who was embarked with him in the canvass, were drawn by the 
people through the streets of a town in Fayette county in a 
carriage, and were triumphantly elected to the Legislature of 
Kentucky. This was A. D. 1803. In the Legislature he met 
the following year in debate with Felix Grundy, and defeated 
the effort of the latter for the repeal of the law of incorpora- 
tion of an insurance company. Somewhat later in point of 
time, A. D. 1806, we find Mr. Clay appearing as counsel for 
Aaron Burr, but having become a senator in Congress, and 
having seen the correspondence of Burr with Swartout, he 



C) 

became convinced tliat the people of Kentucky had been 
deceived by Burr, and he declined to have further relations, 
of anv kind, with him. The election of Clav to the Senate 
of the United States, above referred to, was for a fraction of a 
term, to succeed John Adair, but limited as his time was, Mr. 
Clay, in his very first effort, and in an evenly divided Senate 
in the matter of the Potomac River Bridge, proved himself 
able to carry a majority with him, and to set on foot 
the doctrine of Internal Improvements, which some of the 
first Kepublicau statesmen of the period were so curiously 
slow to conceive. 

On the expiration of his term in the Senate, he was elected 
A. D. 1807 to the Legislature ot Kentucky from the county 
of Fayette, and made Speaker of the House. He rendered 
in his legislative place of this time the ever memorable service 
in the history of the commonwealth, of saving to its civiliza- 
tion and civil liberties the precious jurisprudence of the 
Common Law. He insisted that the authorities of the period, 
before the division of the British Empire, were not foreign, 
but in point of fact belonged to ditferent parts of the same 
country. A bill having been presented to prohibit the read- 
ing in court in the State of Kentucky of any British decision 
or elementary work of law, he offered and succeeded in secur- 
ing the adoption, in spite of the prevailing resentment which 
the arbitrary course of England toward the United States had 
aroused in every true American breast, of an amendment to 
limit the exclusion in question to those works and judicial 
opinions which had appeared sincfi July 4, 1776. There is an 
account of this famous effort by George D. Prentice. In order 
to make it, Mr. Clay used not only his abilities as a lawyer, 
but all his splendid powers as a master of persuasive speech. 
His hearers were held spell-bound. They gazed on the orator 
and listened to his moving eloquence until, as Prentice 
declares, they lost the sense of individual existence. 

In the course of the legislative session of 1808, Mr. Clay 
introduced into the House a resolution for the encouragement 
of the industries of the country, and which required that the 
members of the Legislature should dress in clothing of do- 
mestic manufacture; and next year, 1809, made a report in a 
contested election case of the first importance. Helm, Hay- 



croft and Thomas bein^ candidates for the Legislature, Helm 
received 436 votes, Haycroft 350, and Thomas 271. Hardin 
County being entitled to two representatives, and Helm being 
one, the report denied a seat to Haycroft because by reason 
of his being a judge, under Section 26, Article 2, of the Con- 
stitution of Kentucky he was ineligible. At the same time 
Thomas had a seat declined him also. This was in opposi- 
tion to the doctrine of the celebrated Wilkes casein England, 
which gave to Wilkes' opponent the seat in contest, although 
the latter had received a minority vote only. Mr. Clay's 
report rejected the claim of Thomas on the ground that the 
votes given Haycroft, although void in creating a right on his 
part, could not affect the situation of his competitor. The 
doctrine held by Clay was that disqiialiflcaiion cannot produce 
qualification, and that to give the seat in contest to a minority 
candidate would he subversive of the great principle of free gov- 
ernment, that the majority shall prevail. The investigation in 
Thomas vs. Haycroft was made by Mr. Clay, and the report 
remains in the legible characters of symmetrical fineness for 
which his handwriting is marked. Its doctrines have ever 
since governed the Kentucky elections, and have decidedly 
the weight of greater authority in the United States over 
the English rule, and as I submit, fellow citizens, upon reason, 
as well as authority, we are entitled to add, that the American 
rule is by far the more creditable of the two to a free country. 
On the resignation of Senator Thurston in 1807, Mr. Clay 
was chosen Senator of the United States for an unexpired 
term, and took his seat the winter of 1809-10, making his first 
address in favor of the encouragement of domestic manufac- 
tures — a policy as we have seen, he had previously supported 
in the Legislature of the State of Kentucky. There was now 
prospect of war with England, and he argued for a system 
of manufacturing as essential to American independence. In the 
year 1810 he supported the claim of the United States to the 
Florida Parishes of Baton Rouge and the Felicianas. Presi- 
dent Madison having issued his proclamation declaring West 
Florida, annexed to the territory of Orleans, Mr. Clays' con- 
tention was, first, that the disputed territory was ours by legal 
transfer, as part of the Louisiana purchase of 1803. Sec- 
ondly supposing that it was not, that circumstances made it 



8 

inevitable that the United States should hold it. The free 
navifjation of the Mississippi required we should be in pos- 
session, upon the eternal principle of self-preservation — a prin- 
ciple that knows no limitation of time or place and which gave the 
United States a right to extend itslairs, over the disputed territory. 
It was impossible that the commerce of the whole valley 
should be held at the mercy of Spain. 

In the summer of 1811, having returned to Kentucky, Mr. 
Clay was elected a member of the House of Representatives 
of the United States, and on his first appearance in the House 
was made Speaker — the only instance on record of like ad- 
vancement in Congress in the history of our country. " His 
first step" (said John Randolph, of Roanoke) "was from the 
door of the House to the Speaker's chair." Some forty years 
afterward, Randolph, borne on a litter, was carried into the 
Senate Chamber, a dying man. Clay was speaking. The 
two met for the last time, after scenes the most trying that 
can be pictured, in theirpersonal intercourse. "Lift me up! " 
" Lift me up ! " (cried Randolph) •' I want to hear that voice 
once more ! " The episode took place during the famous debate 
on the compromise tariff bill of 1833. As soon as Clay con- 
cluded his remarks, he left his place to extend his hand to his 
former enemy. 

Chosen Speaker of the House in 1811, Clay continued to 
fill the office until he was appointed one of the plenipoten- 
tiaries to negotiate the treaty of peace with Great Britain. 
On his return from Europe he was immediately re-elected 
to the House and to be Speaker, and retained the place 
(except during his temporary withdrawal from Washington) 
down to March 3, 1825, when he became Secretary of State. 
He proved to be the most eminent Speaker the Congressional 
history of the United States has ever produced. He filled 
the chair with lasting honor to himself. His love of order— 
the sincerity of his nature— the quickness of his percep- 
tions and his strong common sense— the impartiality and cor- 
rectness, and the rapidity of his judgments— the respect he 
was always prepared to show the rights of others— the mingled 
dignity and courtesy and^the fearlessness of his address— a 
voice so melodious, that it has remained to this day unsur- 
passed and probably unequaled by any that has been heard in 



the capitol at Washington, and an established reputation for 
perfect knowledge of the difficult duties of his office, are some 
of the elements which occur to me, of his success in this great 
place. No decision of his was ever overruled, and while 
Speaker of the House of Representatives he was also leader of 
it in debate. The testimony of Horace Greeley is that he was 
confessedly the best presiding officer any deliberative body in 
America has ever known, and that none was ever more se- 
verely tried. 

In 1804 Great Britain declared the French coast from 
Ostend to the Seine to be in a state of blockade, and in 1806 
the blockade was extended from the Elbe to Brest, becoming 
necessarily, in part, a mere paper blockade. Napoleon 
answered November 21, 1806, by the Berlin Decree estab- 
lishing the Continental System and designed to put a stop 
to trade between Great Britain and the European conti- 
nent. Thereupon the British Orders in Council, of Janu- 
ary 7 and November 11, 1807, were issued declaring the 
blockade of all places and ports belonging to France and her 
allies from which the British flag was excluded, and prohibit- 
ing commerce with those countries and their colonies, and 
subjecting to capture and condemnation all vessels trading 
with or from these, and all merchandise on board such 
vessels. Napoleon retaliated by means of his Milan Decree 
of December 17, 1807, declaring that every ship of whatever 
nation, and whatever the value of its cargo, sailing from 
the ports of England or her colonies, or of countries occu- 
pied by the English troops, and every ship which had made 
any voyage to England, or paid any tax to that government, 
or submitted to search by an English ship, should be lawful 
prize. These decrees and counter decrees were the instruments 
by which the commerce of neutrals was destroyed. Great 
Britain would not resign her maritime commerce to build up a 
commercial marine sailing under a neutral flag. She would 
tolerate no trading except it went through her hands, or through 
British ports, where a transit duty was levied for the treas- 
ury. Napoleon on his part desired to constrain neutrals, and 
especially the United States, to become his allies. There 
must be no neutrals, or at least neutrals must have no 
rights. 



10 

For a time after 1803 nearly the whole carrying; trade 
of Europe was done by American vessels. The condition 
of affairs is well delineated in the History of MeMaster. 
The merchant flag of every belligerent, except Enefland 
vanished from the ocean. It was under the American Mag 
that the gum trade was carried on with Senegal, the sugar 
trade with Cuba, that coffee was exported from Caracas, and 
hides and Indigo from South America. Great fleets of Amer- 
ican merchantmen sailed from Vera Cruz, from Carthagena, 
from La Plata, from the French colonies in the Antilles, 
from Cayenne, from Dutch Guiana, from the Isles of France 
and Heunion, from Batavia and Manila to the United States. 
They filled the warehouses of Cadiz and Antwerp to overflow- 
ing. They glutted the nuirkets of Embden and Lisbon, Ham- 
burg and Copenhagen with the products of the West Indies 
and the fabrics of the East, and bringing back the products 
of the looms and forges of Germany to the New World, 
drove out the manufacturers of Yorkshire, Manchester and 
Birmingham. This was the splendid trade, which Great 
Britain marked out for annihilation and proceeded to destroy, 
by paper blockades and by the decisions of her Admiralty 
Courts. 

British men of war claiming to enforce the doctrine of in- 
defeasible allegiance stopped American vessels to search them 
not only on the high .seas but in American waters, and mer- 
cilessly impressed American sailors into the naval service of 
Great Britain. It resulted that naturalization by the United 
States was worthless. In the summer of 1807, the American 
frigate Chesapeake was followed out of the harbor of Norfolk 
by the British man of war Leopard, and under pretext of 
putting despatches on board of the American vessel for 
Europe, a demand made upon her for deserters. Commo- 
dore Barron refusing to permit a search, but having a single 
gun only in readiness, the Englishman fired a broadside, 
killing and wounding a number of the Chesapeake's crew 
and forcing a surrender. This outrage, it is said, incited 
America to action, as no event since the battle of Lexington, 

had done. 

Compelled to act, Tresident Jefferson issued his proclama- 
tion forbidding all British ships of war to remain in American 



11 

waters. There followed in 1807 an extra session of Congress, 
and an embargo which prevented American vessels from leav- 
ing ports of the United States in the hope to punish, in this 
way, England and France. But the experience of a few 
months showed that the embargo -failed altogether to secure 
the purpose had in view. It proved full of calamity to our. 
selves. Adams' History treats of the effects of this measure. 
As the order enforcing it was carried along the sea coast 
"every artisan dropped his tools, every merchant closed 
his doors, every ship was dismantled." It fell upon New 
England with crushing effect. New York looked as if rav- 
aged by pestilence. Not a box, bale, cask or barrel, or 
package, was seen upon the wharves. But the true burden 
of this restraint upon trade was cast upon the Southern 
States, and especially upon the devoted State of Virginia, 
which "with astounding rapidity succumbed to ruin." 
March 1, 1809, the embargo was repealed and a non-inter- 
course act — a law which, instead of universal prohibition of 
trade, merely prohibited commerce with GreatBritain, and the 
countries under French control, substituted in its place. The 
non-intercourse act was almost the last signed by Jefferson as 
President, and his second administration closed in a state of 
political confusion. 

The non-intercourse act empowered the President to sus- 
pend the prohibition in question as to either Great Britain or 
France, as soon as one or the other should desist from vio- 
ating neutral rights. The Orders in Council being supposed 
to have been withdrawn, under an agreement between Mr. 
Erskine, the British Minister, and the Secretary of State, 
non-intercourse was suspended by President Madison, and 
foreign trade sprang at once into excessive activity. But Mr. 
Erskine having been disavowed, and replaced by Mr. Jack- 
son, non-intercourse was resumed under a proclamation by 
President Madison, of August 9, 1809. The British govern- 
ment yielded, seemingly, to the United States, by the adop- 
tion of new Orders in Council which set aside the stringent 
provisions of the orders of 1807, but substituted a paper 
blockade of all ports and places under the government of 
France. Congress, therefore, May 1, 1810, provided for com- 
mercial non-intercourse to cease, and for the exclusion from 



12 

American waters of armed ships only, and if the ohnoxious 
orders and decrees involved should he recalled, for proclamation 
of the fact by the President. 

The conduct of France furnislied no less occasion for com- 
plaint than the course of Great Britain, The representations 
of the American minister, (General Armstrong;, instead of 
procuring relief were followed by the Rambouillet decree of 
May, 1810, which ordered the sale of American ships and 
cargoes under seizure, and the confiscation of American 
vessels entering ])Oits su])ject to French jurisdiction. Tliis 
measure not having the desired effect of putting an en<l to 
the forbidden trade followed in American vessels between 
England and the continent, France gave notice that the Herlin 
and Milan Decrees were revoked and would cease if Enylaml 
would revoke her Orders in Council. The British lieing advised, 
said, September 29, that they would rescind their orders in 
Council when the French revocation actually took effect. 

President Madison assumed that the French measures had 
been revoked, and so announced November 1, ISIO. The 
armed ships of France were no longer to be denied entrance 
to American ports, and February 2, 1811, commercial inter- 
course was once more suspended with Great Britain. In May 
the British Court of Admiralty decided that there was no 
evidence of the withdrawal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. 
The practical result was to put an end to all hopes of an 
amicable adjustment of difficulties with Great Britain. Com- 
merce was permanently suspended and negotiations were 
exhausted. Further provocation for war was given by the 
capture oft" tSandy Hook of an American vessel, by some 
fresh cases of search and impressment, and by an encounter 
between the British sloop of war Little Belt and the American 
frigate President. Over nine hundred American ships had 
been seized by the British and more than five hundred and 
fifty by the French. More than 0000 American citizens were 
impressed as British seamen, or kept in prison if they refused 
to serve. The American government was treated with disdain. 

Such was the situation when Henry Clay entered the 
House of Representatives, and with the co-operation of Mon- 
roe in the cabinet, led the country into the war of 1812. His 
exertions were indefatigable. Day after day his inspiring 



13 

eloquence stirred the courage of his countrymen, and renewed 
the struggle for a declaration of hostilities. "When the diffi- 
culties which the British had to meet were urged, he rejected 
suggestion of them with scorn. When he was asked, what 
what are we to gain by war, his reply was, "What are we not 
to lose by peace'? Commerce, character, a nation's best treas- 
ure, Honor." There were undoubtedly desertions from the 
British service to the American merchant marine, to the extent 
of injuring the efficiency of the former. The language spoken 
by the seamen of the two nations was the same. The British 
insisted that the measures they resorted to were only those of 
self-protection. When the captain of a British frigate over- 
hauled an American merchantman for enemy's property or 
contraband of war, he sent an officer on board who mustered 
the crew" and took out every seaman he believed to be British. 
How was he to do otherwise under his orders? How, Mr. 
Clay was asked in debate on the floor, could the British 
officer determine in any other manner the identity of his 
own countrymen. The answer given by Clay sounded like a 
a trumpet call to arms in the House, and was echoed every- 
where throughout an aroused and indignant country. "If 
" Great Britain," exclaimed the Kentucky statesman, "desires 
*' a mark, by which she can know her own subjects, let her give 
*' them an earmark. The colors that float from the mast-head 
" should be the credentials of our seamen !" He maintained 
that an honorable peace could only be attained by an effi- 
cient war, and rallied to his support the young Repub- 
lican leaders of the time in the House, John C. Calhoun, 
William Lowndes, Felix Grundy, Langdon Cheves and others, 
who, like himself, believed that if the American Republic 
was to maintain anything like the dignity of an independent 
power, it must cease to suhmit to humiliation; and in order toiire- 
serve the respect of manJcind must fight when wronged or insulted. 
A galaxy of able and eminent men adorned the councils of 
the House at this time. Clay's plan was to call out the 
resources of the country and negotiate peace at Quebec or 
Halifax. He said: "We must come out crowned with 
" success, but if we fail, let us fail like men ; lash ourselves 
"to our gallant tars and expire in one common struggle, 
*' lighting for free trade and seamen's rights." His defiance 



14 

of England rings with the same high spirit as the reply to the 
insult of France, received by the Commissioners sent by the 
first President Adams, when they were told that they could 
buy satisfaction of the just claims of their fellow-couutrymen, 
and save American ships from further outrage by the French, 
if they would give a bribe to Talleyrand. ''Millious for 
defense,'^ said Charles Ootesworth Pinckney, uttering the 
resolution of a whole people; *'Xot a cent for irihuk !" 

Writers on Public Law, in order to distinguish it, from the 
War of the Revolution, treat the War of 1812 as the War of 
American Independence. It was a short war, but a necessary 
and very important one. It taught the country the necessity 
for a national currency having the same value in all places. 
The protection of American industry independently of rev- 
enue, or as a distinct object in itself, grew out of the state 
of affairs brought on by the war, during which the want of 
things required for national defence and essential to individual 
comfort had been cruelly felt. The question of internal 
improvements also assumed new proportions owing to the 
want of facilities for transportation experienced in the military 
operations of the United States, and the limits of the treaty 
making power as between the President and Senate on the 
one hand, and Congress, including the House of Kepresenta- 
tives, on the other, called for and received further examina- 
tion. 

With all of these issues as they came on, the public services 
of Mr. Clay were intimately connected, as they also were 
with the question of slavery which began to be agitated 
1819-20 on the admission of the State of Missouri into the 
Union. Some difficulties grew out of the war or followed 
rapidly upon its close, but it brought great benefits with it. 
It elevated the national character before the world. It forced 
Great Britain to abandon the impressment of our seamen. 
It caused the national flag to be respected and advanced. 
Notwithstanding its changing fortunes and some disasters, 
especially in the beginning of the contest, it was fought with 
intrepidity by the Americans, both on sea and land, and 
ended gloriously with the victory of General Jackson, at 
New Orleans. The war was a just one made for the rights, 
and the independence of the United States. It is the theme 



15 

of a proud chapter in the history of the Republic. Honor to 
whom honor is due. Let us render it, then, to the names 
of Henry Clay and of James Monroe, for except for their 
devoted exertions a declaration of war would not have been 
obtained.* 

Having been appointed one of the commissioners to treat 
for peace, Mr. Clay repaired with his colleagues, Mr. Adams, 
Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Bayard and Mr. Russell, to Ghent. The 
position of the United States, owing to the acquisition of 
Louisiana, had become very different from what it was at the 

time of the treaty of September 3, 1783. f On motion that 
the navigation of the Mississippi should be offered to England 
in exchange for the fisheries, Adams, Gallatin and Bayard 
voted in the affirmative, but Clay and Russell in the negative. 
Bayard afterwards joined the minority, and the proposition 
was defeated. 

Mr. Clay's knowledge of the situation was thorough and 
he met it resourcefully. He never surrendered hope in the 
future of the United States. He had the intuition of the 
true statesman. He insisted that application of general prin- 
ciples to the questions at issue would afford the solution 
required, and secure for his country real independence with 
complete sovereignty over the American empire, freed for- 
ever from British interference. He met the trying difficulties 
of the situation with judgment and with unwavering spirit. 
Representing the majority, he contended upon considera- 
tions that are clearly correct — that the fisheries had been 
already recognized, because the treaty of 1783 made a 
division between the United States and Great Britain that was 
perpetual, being on the principle of the partition of an empire. 
It followed that no further stipulation was required. A second 
attempt was made by the representatives of Great Britain to 
obtain the right of free navigation of the Mississippi, but was 
abandoned. It was concluded, finally, to abstain from insert- 
ing any article in the treaty in respect either to the fisheries or 
the Mississippi. Nor was anything said relative to impress- 
ment, but that was never attempted again by Great Britain. 

♦ Benton's Thirty Years. 

t The preliminary treaty was signed Xovember 30, 1782. 



16 

The treaty of Ghent conehuled the war between tlie two 
countries on the 24th of December, 1S14. It was, all things 
beinf? taken into account, truly a creditable treaty to the 
United States, although far better terms would undoubtedly 
have been obtained had it been delayed, and the contract- 
ing parties been informed of the signal victory which 
crowned the American arms at New Orleans under General 
Jackson. 

Returning in 181G from Europe, Mr. Clay was elected to 
Congress, and instructed by the experience of the country 
during the recent war, took position in favor of a Bank of the 
United States, frankly avowing a change from the views Ije 
had held on the subject in 1811. Somewhat later A. D. 1818 
he moved to insert in tlie appropriation bill before the House 
a provision approprirtting $18,000 for the outfit of a minister 
to be sent from the United States to the independent provin- 
ces of the River Li Plata in South America. In taking 
this step he assigned for it the highest considerations of na- 
tional statesmanship, first on the principle consecrated in 
reason and in history, that an oppressed people are authorized 
to rise whenever theif can against their masters, and, secondly, 
because we had a deep interest invoicing our commerce and navi- 
gation and our politics, in recognizing the South American States 
as independent nations. He was defeated in the beginning, 
but had the satisfaction afterward, 1820, to secure the rec- 
ognition of the South American States ; and in 1824, to sup- 
port upon views at least in part the same, the Resolution of 
Daniel Webster for the recognition of Grecian independence. 
In the masterly address of Mr. Webster on the Panama mis- 
sion, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 14th, 
182G, departing from his custom not to speak of individuals 
he warmly repelled the attacks made on Mr. Clay's course as 
that of a visionary enthusiast with reference to South 
America. 

"If sir," said Mr. Webster, " it be true that that gentle- 
" man (Mr. Clay) prompted by an ardent love of civil liberty, 
" felt earlier than others a proper sympathy for the strug- 
" gling colonies of South America; or that acting on the 
" maxim that Revolutions do not go backward, he had the 



17 

* sagacity to foresee earlier thau others, the successful termi- 

* nation of those strug-gles ; if thus feeling, and thus perceiv- 

* ing, it fell to him to lead the willing or unwilling counsels 

* of his country, in her manifestations of kindness to the 
' new governments, and in her seasonable recognition of 
' their independence — if it be this which the honorable mem- 

* ber imputes to him, if it be by this course of public conduct 
' that he has identij&ed his name with the cause of South 

* American liberty, he ought to be esteemed one of the most 
' fortunate men of the age. If all this be as now represented, 
' he has acquired fame enough. It is enough for any man 
' thus to have connected himself with the greatest events of 

* the age in which he lives, and to have been foremost in 

* measures which reflect high honor on his country, in the 
'judgment of mankind." 

President Monroe in his annual message, December 2, 1823, 
announced the doctrine which has come to bear his name and 
which consists of two parts, the first being that the American 
continents are not to be considered as subjects for European 
colonization ; the second, that we will not view, except as a 
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition to the United 
States, any interposition by any European power, to oppress, 
or to reduce to control the governments, on this side of 
the Atlantic, which have declared their independence and 
maintained it, and whose independence we have acknowl- 
edged. 

A resolution was offered soon afterwards, by Mr. Clay 

which virtually repeats the second portion of the Monroe 

doctrine. It declared, " that the American people would not 

' see without serious inquietude any forcible interposition of 

' the allied powers of Europe in behalf of Spain, to reduce 

' to their former subjection those parts of America which 

' have proclaimed and established for themselves, respee- 

' tively, independent governments, and which have been 

' solemnly recognized by the United States." His speeches 

were translated into Spanish and read at the head of the 

armies of the South American patriots to incite them to 

battle. The ode of the Poet Whittier to Henry Clay celebrates 

his speeches for the Greeks : 



18 

"The Grecian as he feeds his llocks 
" In Tempe's vale, on Morea*s rocks. 
'•Or where the gleam of l)rii;ht blue waters 
•' I.« caiiglit by Scii)*s white armed daughters, 
" While dwelling on the dubious strife, 
" Which ushered in his nation's life, 
" Shall mingle in his grateful lay. 
•• lioz/.aris with the name of Clayl'"* 

When President Mouroe, in his first message to Cougress 
of December 1, 1817, referriuj^ to the veto by liis predecessor 
in office, 3Ir. Madison, of the act concerning a fund for 
internal improvements, declared his own settled conviction 
that Congress did not possess the right of constructing roads 
and canals, Mr. Clay made known the constitutional views 
which brought him to support a policy in favor of internal 
improvements, and as he urged, on repeated occasions his 
opinions with all the ardor of \vhich he was capable, I ven- 
ture to place them very brieHy before you in a general way 
as those of the foremost champion of this. policy. He found 
the power in question in the largest considerations of the 
public welfare. It was neither more nor less th<ut that of (Jijfusing 
Juippiness, intelligence and affluence throughout the nation. All 
the powers of government, he argued, should be interpreted 
in reference to its first, its best, its greatest object, the union 
of the States. Under the constitution, according to his 
view, government could exercise any power which was either 
expressly granted by that instrument or impliable from an 
express grant. This is the doctrine also of the great Chief 
Justice in the case of McCuUogh vs. the State of Maryland, 
4th Wh. 316, A. D. 1819, who acting as the organ of the 
Supreme Court in the case cited, decided that the word 

*The first stanza of the ode to Clay above quoted, refers to the 
slander that there was a corrupt coalition between John <,Juincy Adams 
and Clay, by which, in return for Clay's support of Adams, the latter 
was elected over Jackson to the Presidency, by the House of Kepre- 
sentatives, in 1825, and the office of Secretary of State given to Clay : 

" Ay — stand erect! the cloud is broken — 
" Above thee bends the rainbow's token I 
" The shadow of thy onward waj- 
•' Is blending into perfect day; 
" The slanders of the venal train 
" Assail thy honest name in vain; 
" For thou wilt be as thou hast l)een, 
" The hope of free and patriot men I " 

— Sai-gent's Clay, Ed. b>j Greeley. 



19 

necessary iu the Constitution, as in the common affairs of the 
world, frequently imports no more than that one thiu^ is 
convenient or useful, or essential, to another, and that the 
national legislature must be allowed to have that discretion 
with regard to the means by which the powers it confers are 
to be carried into effect which will enable that body 
to perform the high duties assigned to it in the manner most 
beneficial to the people. The language of Chief Justice Mar- 
shall is: "Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the 
"scope of the constitution, and all means which are appro- 
" priate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not 
"prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the 
" constitution, are constitutional." The opinions of Mr. Clay 
found before long the highest sanction in the adoption 
of them by John Quincy Adams, then become President. 
According to Mr, Adams, the great object of the con- 
stitution of civil government is the improvement of those 
who are parties to the social compact. Referring to powers 
given in the Constitution, he said: " If these powers may 
" be effectually brought into action by laws promoting 
"the improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufac- 
" tures, the cultivation of the mechanic and of the elegant 
" arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the 
" sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain from exercis- 
" ing them for the benefit of the people themselves would be 
" to hide in the earth the talent committed to our charge, — 
" would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts." 

Jefferson, Madison and Monroe thought that there was no 
warrant in the Constitution for carrying out a policy of in- 
ternal improvements, such as has become at this day the 
familiar practice of the government at every session of Con- 
gress. I happen to have in my possession a letter of Jeffer- 
son, written to Edward Livingston when the latter had, as 
Senator in Congress from the State of Louisiana, made an 
elaborate speech in favor of internal improvements. Mr. 
Jefferson's letter is praiitically a protest against the course 
taken by Mr, Livingston, and an appeal to him as a member 
of the Republican party of the time, to return to the true 
policy of the party, Down to a comparatively late period in 
its history, the Democratic party refused its approval to a 



20 

system of internal improvements. Mr. Clay was wise, and, 
as I submit, very far-seeint;. lie was greatly in advance on 
this subject, not only of the Democratic party, but of many 
of the first Republican statesmen of his time. Now that the 
resources of the country have been developed by the applica- 
tion to them of his enlightened and liberal views, and that 
they are universally accepted as indispensable to commerce 
and navigation, and to tlie increase of national wealth, 
we are left only to wonder at the opposition they en- 
countered. He contended against the position taken 
by Monroe, and held, tiiat in the power to establish post 
roads conferred by the Constitution on Congress, there is 
included the power to build roads and to keep them in repair. 
The power to regulate commerce, he rightfully claimed, im- 
plies the authority to foster it. 

According to his high authority, tlie power to make all 
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and 
other property of the United States, conveys the power to 
Congress to legislate for the territories. All who have had 
occasion to look into the treaty making power, and into the 
possible extent to which it may be carried, know that it is un- 
limited in its nature, except so far as any limitations may be 
found in the Constitution of the United States. The power of 
acquisition by treaty carries with it the power to gom-n (ill the 
territory acquired. 

It is especially interesting to us, Fellow Citizens, at this 
particular juncture, to take notice in presence of the vast 
interest New Orleans has in the building of the Nicaragua 
Canal that Mr. Clay contended, that the government derived 
the right to make canals from its authority to declare and 
prosecute war, and that it derived the same right from its 
authority to regulate commerce. " Congress, " said he, 

* has power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
' among the several States. Precisely the same measure of 
' power which is granted in one case, is conferred in the 
'other." "Sir:" (he exclaimed) "It is a subject of 
' peculiar delight to me to look forward to the proud and 
' happy period, distant as it may be, when circulation and 
' association between the Atlantic and Pacific shall be as free 

* and perfect as they are at this moment in England, and, in 



21 

*' any other, the most highly improved country on the globe. 
*' Sir, a new world has come into being since the Constitution 
" was adopted. Are the narrow limited necessities of the old 
" thirteen States as they existed at the formation of the 
«' Constitution, forever to remain a rule of its interpretation? 
" Are we to neglect and refuse the redemption of that vast 
" wilderness which once stretched beyond the Alleghany? I 
" hope for better and nobler things." 

Let us, as well as we can m a moment of time, take up 
these broad and statesmanlike views of Henry Clay, replete 
as they are with all imaginable love of country, and apply 
them to the conditions of the present day. In the course of 
the proud and stupendous progress of the Republic, applica- 
tion of the Monroe doctrine has come to be yielded to by the 
foremost nations of Europe. Cuba and Porto Rico have been 
set free from the yoke of the Spaniard, and Cuba and other 
islands of the West Indies, as well as Porto Rico, are evidently 
to be American territory. The Sandwich Islands and the Phil- 
ippine Archipelago are already within reach of the blessings 
of knowledge, of science and the arts, as well as of civil 
government, and through the open door to the East, a com- 
merce the most alluring that has ever been dreamed of, is 
about to pour its way to the American shores, under the pro- 
tection of a powerful navy manned by the best and bravest 
seamen the world has ever seen, able to hold distant as well 
as the neighboring seas, and carrying the flag of the United 
States at the masthead to every part of the circumnavigable 
globe. Are we, I ask, to turn away from and to reject such 
a prospect as this? I answer the question in the words of 
Henry Clay just quoted. I would re-echo those words now, 
and, if I could, have them heard everywhere. I, too, fellow- 
citizens, fervently hope for better and nobler things ! 

A petition for the admission of Missouri as a State was 
presented in the House of Representatives March 6, 1818, and 
a bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form a State gov- 
ernment was taken up in that body February 13, 1819. The 
, agitating and dangerous question of slavery was therefore in- 
troduced, and the struggle it provoked lasted intermittently, 
until March, 1821. Pending the bill an amendment was pro- 
posed by Mr. Tallmadge, a representative from New York, 



22 

providing that the further introduction of slavery should be 
prohibited, and that all children born within the State should 
be free at the age of twenty-five years. In the House the bill 
with the amendment passed, but the amendment was stricken 
out in the Senate, and the houses severally adhering to their 
opinion, the bill was defeated. On the renewal of the dis- 
cussion at the next session, the debate was even more angry 
than at first. At last by means of conference the following 
compromise was brought about : 

Missouri was received into the Union without restriction, 
and by the 8th section of the act admitting her it was provided, 
" that in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, 
" under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty- 
" six degrees and thirty minutes, north latitude, not included 
" within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, 
" slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the 
" punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have 
" been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby forever pro- 
'' hibited : Provided ahcai/s, that any person escaping into 
" the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, 
*' in any State or territory of the United States, such fugi- 
" five may be lawfully reclaimed, aud conveyed to the person 
" claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid." 

The act here cited did not absolutely admit Missouri, but 
only authorized her to form a constitution not repugnant to the 
Constitution of the United States, and directed that the State 
Constitution should be transmitted to Congress. A final reso- 
lution would then be necessary for the admission of Missouri. 
A. D. 1820, the people of the Territory of Missouri ordained 
a constitution, with the following (26th section, 3d article), 
that it should be the duty of the (jeneral Assembly, " as soon 
" as might be, to pass such laws as were necessary to prevent 
" free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in 
" the State on any pretext whatever." The proposed re- 
striction renewed the agitation, and the contention became 
so fierce as to imperil most seriously the public safety. 

In May, 1820, at the close of the session, Mr, Clay, having 
suffered severe losses as endorser for a friend, announced his 
temporary withdrawal from attendance upon Congress. He 
returned to Kentucky to repair his fortunes by the practice of 



23 

law, and November 20 resigned the office of Speaker, although 
he retained his membership in the Honse. 

The Constitution provides that "the citizens of each 
State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immuni- 
" ties of citizens of the several States," Mr. Clay re- 
turning to Washington January 16, 1821, in view of the 
Constitution, moved for the appointment of a committee 
of thirteen, and reported a resolution to admit Missouri 
"on an equal footing with the original States in all 
" respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition that 
" the said State shall never pass any law preventing any 
*' description of persons from coming to and settling in the 
" said State who now are, or hereafter may become citizens 
** of any of the States of this Union." The resolution pro- 
vided further, that as soon as the Legislature of Missouri 
should, by solemn public act, have declared the assent of the 
State to this provision, the President should by proclamation 
announce the fact, whereupon the admission of the State 
should be considered complete. The report on being taken 
up was lost in the House of Representatives by a vote of 83 
to 80. The following day February 13 a scene of tumult and 
confusion arose, when the vote for President and Vice 
President was counted on the issue whether or not the vote 
of Missouri should be enumerated. The rejection of the 
report of Mr. Clay's committee of thirteen created a profound 
sensation. Scenes of anarchy and of bloodshed appeared to 
be very close. 

February 22, 1821, Clay moved for a committee of twenty- 
three to correspond with the number of States, to take up the 
question at issue afresh, and the motion was adopted , Finally 
a resolution was agreed to and passed, not varying materially 
from that to which I have referred. The President issued 
his proclamation and the State was admitted. The public 
announcement was received with bursts of rejoicing. The 
bells rang. Cannon were fired, and there was every demon- 
stration of exultation and joy throughout the whole land. 
Clay was hailed the savior of his country — the pacificator of 
ten millions of people. It was generally admitted that the 
result was mainly due to his influence — to his expostulations 
and persuasion with members — to his sincerity and anxious 



24 

entreaties — to his zeal and perseverance, and to the warmth 
and eloquence of the personal appeals which he urped. 

John J. Crittenden, speaking of the achievement, said that 
" it was the sjreatest civil triumpii ever achieved by mortal 
man." Only a short time before the accomplishment of the 
settlement, Mr. Jefferson wrote from Monticello: "The 
*' Missouri question is the most portentous one that ever 
" threatened the Union. In the gloomiest moments of the 
" Revolutionary War, I never had any apprehension equal to 
" that I feel from this source." John (^uincy Adams ap- 
proved tin- {'<»mpromise as all that could be effected under 
the Constitution, and from extreme unwillingness to put the 
Union at hazard. He wrote in his diary that one of " the 
greatest results of this conHiot of three sessions" was "to 
bring into full display the talents and resources and inHuence 
of Mr. Clay." The biography of Clay, wiiich Carl Schurz 
has offered as a contribution to American political literature, 
appropriately observes, that Clay was always the most con- 
spicuous figure whenever he appeared in a jjiirliamentary 
contest, and in this instance that he impressed himself on 
the popular mind as the leading actor in the drama. 

On the conclusion of the war with England, Mr. Clay ad- 
vocated a protective policy. Most of the Federalists opposed it, 
while Calhoun, Lowndes, and other Southern men supported 
it. A tremendous importation of English goods flooded the 
country, and American industry, which had been artificially 
developed during the contest, now called for governmental 
aid, but the principal argument which Mr. Clay urged, and 
which the Republicans accepted, was that certain manufactur- 
ing itidustries must he built up and sustained for the security of 
the country in time of uar. It was in this way that the tariff 
of 181 G came to be adopted, but it failed to prevent the reac- 
tion which had been apprehended on the return of peace, and 
after an ineffectual attempt for a general revision of duties 
in order to reach higher duties, in January, 1824, Mr. Clay 
brought forward, under the name of the Anierican System, 
the tariff bill of that year, and supported it in an elaborate 
address of the first order of ability. 

When it was objected that the American system would 
operate unequally ; that the South being a planting and 



25 

agricultural community, could not engage in manufacturing, lie 
replied that the obstacles were imaginary ; that the South could 
manufacture ; but supposing the case to be otherwise, that the 
South had no right to claim that the policy of the Union should 
be established in sole reference to the condition of the blacks — 
that the whole country should become the slave of the slaves. 
Besides, ultimately, if the South did not manufacture, it 
would be able to purchase for its wants at home, at a greatly 
diminished price. To the objection that the tariff would 
diminish our navigation Mr. Clay answered, that if he was 
■correct, in supposing that our industry would produce new 
objects of exportation, our navigation would receive addi- 
tional encouragement. Even if our navigation did suffer 
temporary depression, the increase of the coasting trade 
would bring us more than a compensation. He denied that 
the American system would force capital into new and 
reluctant employments. At any rate, manual labor is but 
a trifling consideration in the manufacturing arts. Almost 
everything is now done by machinery. The circumstances 
most favorable for success in manufacturing are capital and 
raw material, ingenuity in the construction of machinery and 
adroitness in the application of it. Our citizens being defi- 
cient in no one of these, with proper protection would have 
complete success. Mr. Clay refuted the argument that 
manufactures would spring up unaided. This could not be 
and never has been where they are brought in contact with 
protected manufactures. 

To those who said that in adopting protection we only put 
on the cast-off habiliments of other nations, he said no 
nation having once secured the benefits of the restrictive 
system had given them up. The visionary speculations of 
theoretical writers whenever adopted had brought poverty 
with them. Great Britain had protected not only all her vast 
dominions, but the parent country against the colonies. Sup- 
posing, however, Great Britain should abolish all restrictions 
upon trade we ought by no means to follow her example, be- 
cause, by reason of the perfection of her arts, in case of free 
trade, every American manufacturer would become a bankrupt. 
To the suggestion that the tariff is unconstitutional, he an- 
swered this is a fresh discovery. The Constitution authorizes 



26 

Confjress to regulate coraraeree with foreign nations. Under 
this clause we had already passed embargoes, laws of total non- 
intercourse effecting an entire cessation with all the nations of 
the earth. The American system proposed that while imports 
should be mainly, and under modifications might safely be re- 
lied on a.s a fit and convenient source of Revenue, the duties on 
foreign fabrics should be so adjusted and arranged as to give 
gradual protection to American industry, securing ultimately 
a cheaper supply from our own abundant resources, while 
lessening, meanwhile, our dependence on foreign nations. 
Mr. Clay insisted at different times thai no one at the commence- 
ment of the protective policy supposed that it was to be perpetual. 
We hoped and believed that temporary protection extended to our 
infant manufactories would bring them up, and enable them to 
icithstand competition with those of Europe. 

The speecii of yiv. Clay of the year 1824, on the tariff, is by 
far the best sustained and the strongest argument I have seen 
in favor of the doctrine of protection. No student of Ameri- 
can politics can afford to remain unacquainted with it. It 
was stated to me by John Randolph Tucker, a distinguished 
Representative in Congress from the State of Virginia, (who, 
according to the testimony of the late Sanniel -T. Tilden, of 
New York, had himself contributed most valual>le informa- 
tion to the discussion on the tariff in the House, wiiich culmi- 
nated in the election to the Speakership of John iiv'iffin Carlisle 
of Kentucky), that while the more recent debaters had 
had later statistics, they had been able to add nothing to the 
ability with which the arguments of the time of Clay had 
been conducted. Mr. Tucker's statement is the more remark- 
able, as well as valuable, because of his championship of the 
principles of free trade.* A Democratic majority in the House 
followed the eminent leadership of Carlisle, Morrison, Tucker 
and others of their opinion. It seems to me proper to add that 



* .lohn Bach McMaster, in his article on Daniel Webster in the 
Century Magazine for June, 11)01. says: 

" More than three-quarters of a century have passed since that day, 
" yet l;he respective merits of free trade and protection are as far as ever 




" brilliant speech by Clay, nor more forcibly combated than they were 
"in the vigorous reasoning of Webster." 



27 

I never was able to do so. The statesmen from Virginia were 
not of the constitutional school of John Marshall. Those of 
Kentucky were in arms against the American system of Henry 
Clay. I expect to recall always with pleasure a conversation 
between Mr. Carlisle and another Representative in Congress, 
on the floor of the House, at which I was present. The 
name of Clay was brought in question. Mr. Carlisle closed 
the subject in a way which allowed of no rejoinder. " Mr. 
Clay," said the then Speaker of the House with reverence 
of manner as well as of words which did him honor, " was 
a very great man;^^ and so, fellow-citizens, he was, and so 
he will be always thought of by everyone whose opinion is 
entitled to any weight. 

The tarife of 1828 is known in American history as the 
' ' tariff of abominations. ' ' It was adopted during the adminis- 
tration of John Quincy Adams, when Mr. Clay had become 
Secretary of State and there was an anti-administration 
majority in the House. The act gave great dissatisfaction in 
the planting States. They complained that they had to bear 
all the burdens and received none of benefits of the act. A 
great commotion arose in South Carolina against the tariff, 
and led the way to Nullification, the theory of which was 
that any single State had the right to declare a law of the 
United States unconstitutional, void and not binding. It 
was argued ia support of the proposition, against the principles 
of human nature and the history of States, that if the right 
of nullification were recognized a good understanding would 
be promoted, because the majority listening to reason, there 
would result only a suspension of the offensive law nntil the 
mistake of the majority was rectified. Otherwise the State 
aggrieved should have the constitutional Right of Secession. 

Daniel Webster's speech in answer to Robert Young Hayne, 
who stood for the position of the uullitiers, was, as Mr. Clay 
testified, "a noble triumph." Such a speech would have 
been great in any age, in any country, and in any delibera- 
tive body of statesmen that the world has seen, and with 
other speeches by Webster, earned rank for him with the 
first orators of history— with Demosthenes and Cicero, Chat- 
ham and Burke. Edward Everett, speaking of the reply to 
Hayne, said, that it placed before him more completely than 



28 

!iuy other address he had ever heard his conception of Demos- 
thenes when he delivered the oration for the crown. Kufus 
Choate, referring to the celebrated etfort of Webster before a 
jury on the trial of John Francis Knapp, made in the same year 
with his reply to Hayne in the Senate,. observed that he conld 
not help considering it a more difficult and higher effort of 
the mind than the Oration for the Crown. 

The speei'li of Daniel Webster on Foot's Resolutions in reply 
to Senator llayne, of South Carolina, was made in the Senate 
.lanuary 2(3 and 27, 1830. On the ensuing liJth of April, on 
the occasion of the celebration in Washington, by a banquet, 
of Jefferson's birthday, when General Jackson was called upon 
for a toast, he gave the sentiment which has become histor- 
ical, and which is engraved on the pedestal of Mills' e<[ues- 
trian .statue in Jackson Stpiare, in the city of New Orleans: 
"0«r Federal Union; it must he preserved.'" John C. Callioun 
had not yet disclosed his position on Nullitication, but owing 
to the feeling which had been spreading ever since Webster's 
address, the toast of the President was received as the an- 
nouncement hi/ him of a plot against the Union, and as a sum- 
mons to the people to come to the rescue. It electrified the 
country. (Jn the relation of a learned and accomplished 
friend of my early life, Henry D. Gilpin, who was Attorney 
General in the cabinet of Mr. Van Buren, I am able to state 
that the sentiment referred to came from the latter. "Gen- 
eral," said Mr. Van Buren, as he offered the suggestion, "you 
ought to give some such sentiment as this." It came to pass 
when General Jackson actually did so, that it fell according to 
the testimony of Benton, like a thunderbolt upon the conspirators. 

In 1831 and 1832, Mr. Calhoun published addresses urging 
on South Carolina an immediate issue on account of the op- 
pressive tariff legislation referred to. The legislature was 
convened October 22, 1832, to consider the usurpations of the 
General Government, and a convention was called. The 
convention assembled November 10th, and adopted an ordi- 
nance declaring the tariff Act of 1823 and the amendment of 
1832 null and void, and that it should be unlawful to enforce 
the payment of duties thereunder in the State, and that it 
should be the duty of the Legislature to make laws giving 
effect to the ordinance, and, if the Government should 



29 

attempt the ea£orcemeat of the law, the State would secede. 
The law was to go into effect February 1, 1833. 

November 19 the Legislature met and passed appropriate 
legislation. Preparation was made for a conflict of arms. 
December 10 ensuing, there appeared the famous proclama- 
tion of General Jackson announcing the attitude of the Gov- 
ernment and its determination to enforce at all hazards 
the laws of the United States. It is an elaborate paper of 
finest excellence, in both form and matter, in every way 
worthy of a lawgiver and jurist who was an ornament to 
the entire bar of the country. It is now well known 
that it was written by Edward Livingston, who had re- 
signed his seat as a Senator from the State of Louisiana, 
to become Secretary of State. It may not be uninteresting 
to those who are good enough to listen to me here to-day 
to say, that the original of the proclamation in the hand- 
writing of the author is in my possession, and also a letter 
addressed to him by the President, in which the latter makes 
some brief suggestions advising the Secretary that the bearer 
of his note, Andrew Jackson Donelson, awaited the last 
sheets of the proclamation, and requesting Mr. Livingston 
"to give it his loftiest flight !" It assumed the position 
that the Constitution forms a government, operating directly 
on the citizen and intended to be everlasting, and not a mere 
league of States; and established, as I believe, by an argu- 
ment of unanswerable strength, that the Constitution does 
not contain the flagrant absurdity of giving a power to make 
laws, and at the same time another power to resist them. 
The proclamation spoke for the President to his misguided 
fellow-citizens of South Carolina, in the affecting language 
of a father. He appealed to them by the memory of their 
revolutionary ancestors, to retrace their steps, to reassemble 
their convention, and to call upon it to repeal its disorganiz- 
ing edict. He solemnly warned them that resistance to the 
national authority would be met by recourse to force. 

When in December 1834 the United States were confronted 
with the danger of a war with France, owing to the refusal 
of the latter country to discharge the American claims for the 
depredations committed by the French upon American ship- 
ping, Mr. Livingston left the Department of State, and, 



30 

appointeil and confirmed minister to France, whither he was 
sent in the ship of the line Delaware, conducted to the admi- 
ration of his countrymen the difficult ne^n)tiations, which 
reached a diplomatic rupture when his passports were ten- 
dered him and the French minister was at the same time 
withdnuvn from Washinp^ton. 

The services of Mr. Clay were most instrumental in pre- 
serving peace at home and afterwards abroad in both of the 
important emergencies I have just mentioned. 

The proclamation of Jackson was received by the nullifiers 
with defiance. Calhoun resigned the Vice Presidency and 
entered the Senate to advocate nullification. The Presi- 
dent called for strong measures, and the Force Bill was 
l)assed. 

Taking the field again as the Champion of Compromise. 
Mr. Clay procured simultaneously with the ])assage of this 
l>ill, a measure for the gradual reduction of the tariff, until 
184-2. when it was to stand at 20 per cent, as a horizontal list 
with a large free list. South Carolina repealed her nullifica- 
tion ordinance. Clay contended that the Force Bill and the 
Bill of Peace should go together for the good of the country: 
the first to demonstrate the power and the disposition to 
vindicate the authority and supremacy of the Union, 
the second, to offer tJiat which accepted in the proper fra- 
ternal spirit in which it was tendered, would supersede the 
necessity of the employment of force. When charged 
with being ambitious his answer to his accusers was, " I 
" have ambition. But it is the ambition of being the 
" humble instrument in the hands of Providence to recon- 
" cile a divided people, once more to revive concord and har- 
" mouy in a distracted land— the pleasing ambition of cou- 
" tenjplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosper- 
" ousand fraternal people." 

The bill of Mr. Clay passed. The country welcomed it 
with great favor. He had won a second time the title of 
Pacificator. Senator Benton says that the legislation was 
received as a deliverance, and the estimable authors of it 
greeted as benefactors and their work declared by legislatures 
to be sacred and inviolable, and every citizen doomed to 
political outlawry that did not give in his adhesion and bind 
himself to the perfecting of the act. 



31 

Addressine: himself to the task of adjusting the difficulty 
with France, Mr. Clay was enabled through the wisdom and 
moderation of his report, made in the important place of 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Senate, 
to avert the threatened calamity of a foreign war. 

The treaty of July 4, 1831, promised to pay the United 
states $5,000,000 in six installments, but on a draft being 
drawn upon France, payment was refused because there had 
been no appropriation made by the Chambers. Mr. Living- 
ston having duly reported a confidential intimation he had 
received from the King of France that an earnest passage in 
the message of the President might secure payment, General 
Jackson actually proceeded to recommend reprisals. The 
French exclaimed against this as a threat which made it 
impossible for France to pay without dishonor and it became 
necessary to do something to keep open friendly nego- 
tiations. This was accomplished by reference to the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations of which Clay was chairman. 
Mr. Clay's report pointed out that the President had sug- 
gested reprisals in the alternative only in his annual 
message of December, 1834, that is in case provision for 
payment should not be made at the next session of the 
French Chambers. He insisted that while the President 
and the whole people of the United States stood together, 
and the indemnity was due, it behooved -our Government 
not to anticipate breach by France of her solemn engagements 
and to treat her with confidence. It was unanimously 
resolved, in consequence, by the Senate, eTanuary 14, 1835, 
that any legislation at that time, was inexpedient. The gov- 
ernment of England having intervened to tender its offices as a 
mediator, France retreated from her original demand for sat- 
isfactory explanations of the President's message of 1834, by 
making the declaration that Jackson's annual message of 1835 
(which was addressed to the American Congress only, and in 
which he had said that he had never used menace) was a 
sufficient disclaimer. The money was paid, and the incident 
closed with increase to the popularity of Jackson ; but Mr. 
Clay's report unquestionably contributed largely to the 
success of the United States. 

Mr. Clay spoke against the British outrage in the case of 
the Caroline which arose in 1837. He advised cautious pro- 



32 

ceedinprs to avoid war ^^ith Enfjland wlien the matter of a 
territorial government for Oref^on was in (juestiou. He 
counseled moderation in the matter of the American claim 
against Mexico. He supported a bill against dueling in the 
District of Columbia. He showed himself a friend to the 
ripfht of petition, and while opposed to slavery a supporter 
of the riL'hts of the States as established bv the fatiiers. 
The candid enquirer will find no diniculty in understanding 
his political faith. He said: "I am no friend of slavery. 
" The .searcher of all hearts knows that every pulsation of 
" mine beats high and strong in the cause of civil liberty. 
" Wherever it is safe and practicable, I desire to see every 
" portion of the human family in the enjoyment of it. But 
" / prefer the liherti/ of tni/ oirti country to that of ami other 
" people, and the Utierty of my own rare to that of any othrr rare. 
" The liberty of the descendants of Afrira in the United States 
" is incompatible with the liberty and safety of the European 
** descendants.'' • • • This utterance, in particular, leads 
me to recall the letter of August 20, 1862, of Abraham 
Lincoln to Horace Greeley made ])ublie when the former 
declined, as he did at first, the importunities of the extreme 
men of his party, to issue the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
and his declaration of an earlier period of his eventful life, 
that Henry Clay was his beau ideal of a statesman. =•= 

Having held the- Whig party together, notwithstanding the 
staggering effects upon it of Tyler's Bank vetoes, Mr. Clay 
took leave of the Senate March 31, 1842, in a brief speech 
which abounds in qualities of excellence. I mention here 
only some of these. Its elevation of thought and gener- 
ous consideration for others ; the dignity, the courtesy, the 
grace which appear throughout it, and the warmth of affec- 
tion it breathes for his honored associates. The address 
marked an epoch in the history of the Senate, and is espec- 

* Says the letter of President Lincoln above referred to: — 
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and 
" is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union 
" without freeing any slaves, I would do it: and if I could save it by 
" freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing 
" some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do 
" about slavery and the colored race, I do because it helps to save the 
" Union; and what I forbear. I forbear because I do not believe it 
'' would help to save the Union." 



33 

ially memorable for the fact that it remains to the present 
time (unless the leave-taking of Southern Senators at the out- 
break of the war may be so classed) the only valedictory de- 
livered by a Senator ou retiring from his place. This, Ben- 
ton declares, was the first occasion of the kind, and thus far 
had been the last. The Senator of thirty years goes on to 
observe, that it might not be recommendable for any one 
except another Henry Clay, if, indeed, another should ever 
appear to repeat it. 

When overpowered by the scene, the Senate found itself 
disabled for the transaction of business during the rest of 
that day, it proceeded by a unanimous vote to adjourn. The 
Senators then crowded around Clay to respond to his affect- 
ing words of farewell. As he left the chamber, it happened 
that he met the great Senator from South Carolina, 
who (except for the presence of Clay and Webster) would 
have been matchless as an orator on the tloor. There had. 
been an un^happy estrangement between Calhoun and Clay. 
Meeting as they now did on the eve of a separation, believed 
by both to be final, they shook hands and made friends. 

There is another short address of Mr. Clay, as Speaker of 
the House, years before that just mentioned, and made as a 
ceremonial act, A, D. 1824, to bid welcome to Lafayette when 
he visited the capital as the guest of the nation, to which I 
ought not to omit reference, first because, although in a dif- 
ferent way, it was equally solemn and touching with the fare- 
well to the Senate; and, secondly, because it has always 
appeared to me a bright example of the truth which is 
presented by Cicero, that he is eloquent, who is able to 
speak with appropriateness or naturally. Is enim eloquens 
est qui et humilia suhtiliter et magna grariter et mediocria tern- 
perate potest dicere. It was on the occasion of the visit of 
Lafayette to our country that the ancient college of 
Harvard, by the golden mouth of one of its sons — Edward 
Everett — long time the first scholar in public life in the 
United States, laid, August 26, 1824, its tribute of rever- 
ence and affection before him in a chaste and beautiful 
oration of unanswerable power of reasoning, to show 
that republican institutions, to found which Lafayette 
had acted his devoted and heroic part, are favorable to the 
advancement of literature and the fine arts. 



34 

Mr. Clay did not appear in the Senate again until the time 
of the administration of General Taylor. Notwithstanding 
the reassertion by him of strong anti-slavery opinions, and 
the fact that these were objectionable to a majority of the 
people of Kentucky, he was elected Senator for a full term 
l)y the unanimous vote of the Legislature and took his seat 
December, 1S49. The Southern disunionists witnessed the 
prospects of his return to public life with (tpenly avowed 
regret and apprehension. The Mexican War and the conse- 
quent acquisition of new territory had revived the agitation 
of the slavery question. Mr. Clay had the year previous 
only, made known his views. lie thought the South ought 
to assent to the exclusion of slavery from the new territories. 
If, he said, the South refused to accept such exclusion, I 
quote his letter of the year 1S4S to James E. Harvey, "// will 
" nevertheUss prevail; nud the mt) flirt, pxaspn-afed hi/ hitter 
'* contention and mutudl passion, will eithir had to a dissolution of 
•' the Union or deprive it of that harmnnij which alone can maJie 
" the Union desirable. If will lead to the formation of a sectional 
" and Xorthern party which will sooner or later fake permanent 
" and exclusive possession of the Qovernmenty 

To meet the difficulties of the situation he introduced reso- 
lutions to the following effect: 

1. That California be admitted with her free State Con- 
stitution. 

2. That Congress (inasmuch as slavery was not likely to 
be introduced into the territories acquired from Mexico) 
should provide territorial governments for New Mexico and 
I'taii without any restriction as to slavery. Slavery in other 
words, was nominally to have a chance to get, where it was 
clear it would not go. 

3 and 4. That a boundary line between New Mexico and 
Texas be fixed, giving Texas a little only of the New Mexican 
territory claimed by her, and paying Texas a certain sum of 
money for the discharge of her public debt, for which during 
her independent existence her customs revenue had been 
pledged, 

5 and G. That it was inexpedient to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, but the slave trade in the district was to 
be abolished. 



35 

7. That a more effectual fugitive slave law should be 
enacted, 

8. That Congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct the 
trade in slaves between the slaveholding States. 

A veteran Senator knowing his part to perfection, be pro- 
ceeded to perform it with absolute fearlessness. He was 
studiously careful to omit no courtesies that the occasion sug- 
gested, in acknowledgment of the deference extended to him 
on many sides, while he shook off " lihi a dew droj) from the 
lion^s mane," every attack which his enemies aimed at him. 
Whoever will read the official record, as it is available in the 
Congressional Globe, will find his admiration of Clay aroused 
to the highest pitch. 

When, February 20, 1850, the special order in the Senate 
was reference of the message of the President to transmit the 
constitution of California, and Mr. Clay was assailed in the 
debate, he said : 

" But, sir, I desire the sympathy of no man — the forbear- 
' ance of no man ; I desire to escape from no responsibility 
' of my public conduct on account of my age, or for any 
' other cause. I ask for none. I am in a peculiar situation, 
' Mr. President, if you will allow me to say so — without any 
' earthly object of ambition before me ; standing, as it were 
' upon the brink of eternity ; separated to a great extent from 
' all the earthly ties which connect a mortal with his being 
' during this transitory state. I am here expecting soon to go 
' hence, and owing no responsibility but that which I owe to 
' my own conscience and to God. Ready to express my 
' opinions upon all and every subject, I am determined to do 
' so and no imputation, no threat, no menace, no application 
' of awe or terror to me, will be availing in restraining me 
' from expressing them. None, none whatever." 

The resolutions were referred to a grand committee of 
thirteen, of which Mr. Clay was made chairman. As he 
wanted, at first, one vote to elect him, that vote was given by 
Daniel Webster. Later on Webster added his tribute of praise 
of Clay's abilities as he witnessed the marvelous exhibition 
of them in the debate. The resolutions of the committee 
were reported in the shape of bills to the Senate. The re- 
port of Mr. Clay contained also a provision that any new 



3G 

State to be formed out of the territory of Texas slioukl wlieu 
fit to be admitted be received with or without slavery as its 
people mipht determine. He supported his plan of adjust- 
ment for peace and the Union in a speech characterized in 
open Senate by Senator Benton as a frank, manly, noble and 
threat speech. It occupied two days, and bron<;ht people from 
many parts of the United States, near and distant to Wash- 
in{?ton, to hear him. The jiolitical crisis filled everybody 
with apprehension, and imparted such interest to the pro-, 
ceedings as to make them frecjuently dramatic, and so as to 
leave a lasting impress upon the history of the times. 

Owing to the crowd there was much confusion in the 
lobbies, and the avenues leading to the Senate Chamber. 
The floor and ante-rooms were also packed. It became 
necessary to close the approaches to the galleries and Sen- 
ate Chamber and to call again and again for order. Other 
senators attentive to the imposing scene, turned to Mr. 
Clay with every mark of reverence. When he ro.se there 
was an outburst of entiiusiasm. The multitude outside took 
up the shout, and rent the air with cheers, so that the 
senator from Kentucky could with difliculty be heard. He 
complained of the weight of years and of liis waning 
strength, luit declined repeated suggestions to adjourn for his 
relief. He began in feeble voice, but little by little recovered 
himself. The intense love of country witli which his 
address glowed, and the transcendent power of his action, 
strangely agitated with many emotions, the hearts of all 
who were present, and obtained for him perfect mastery 
over the assemblage before him. He swayed it at will and 
left it enraptured. Throughout the debate on the compromise 
measures, it was found impracticable to repress the applause 
which greeted the sallies of his impassioned oratory. In every 
part of the Republic all that he said was eagerly waited for, 
and published and read, with consuming interest and excite- 
ment, in private and public places, by thousands of sympa- 
thetic and grateful fellow-countrymen, who joined in lauding 
his patriotism and eloquence to the skies. 

He treated the United States rightfully as a nation having a 
great destiny to fulfill. He regarded it as a government de- 
signed to be perpetual, capable of attaining the objects for 
which it was created, by the mejins which are necessary for 



37 

their attainment, and havinsj by the Constitution the powers 
required to defend itself against domestic as well as foreign 
enemies. He declared that war and a dissolution of the 
Union were identical and inseparable, and that the vast 
population upon the head waters of the Mississippi would 
never consent that the mouth of the river should be held 
subject to the power of any foreign State whatever. He 
besought gentlemen whether from the South or North, by 
all they held dear in this world ; by all their love of liberty ; 
by all their veneration for their ancestors ; by all their regard 
for posterity ; by all their gratitude to God, who had be- 
stowed on them such unnumbered blessings ; by all the duties 
they owed to mankind, and all the duties they owed them- 
selves, to pause at the edge of the precipice before the fear- 
ful and disastrous leap was taken into the yawning abyss 
below. As the best blessing which Heaven could bestow 
on himself, he implored it, that if the direful event of the 
dissolution of the Union should happen, he might not sur- 
vive to witness the heart-rending spectacle. 

" If unhappily " said he, " we should be involved in Civil 
" war between the two parts of this Confederacy, in which 
" the effort upon the one side should be to restrain the intro- 
" duction of slavery into the new territories, and upon the 
" other side to force its introduction there, ivJiat a spectacle 
" should tve present to the astonishment of manJcind, in an effort 
** not to propagate rights but — I must say it, though I trust it 
" ivill he understood to he said ivith no design to excite feeling — 
" a ivar to propagate wrongs in the territories thus ac<pdred 
" from Mexico. It ivould he a war in which tve should have no 
*' sijmpathi), no good wishes, in which all manldnd ivould he 
" against us, and in which our own history would he against us/^ 

Mr. Calhoun contended, on the contrary, that it was the 
duty of the South to force the issue on the North. Greeley 
pronounces him the truest and ablest exponent the country 
has known of the political creed antagonist to that of Mr. 
Clay. " We are stronger now " (Mr. Calhoun urged), '' than 
we shall be hereafter, politically and morally. Unless we 
bring on the issue delay will be dangerous indeed. It is 
the true policy of those ivho seek our destruction.^^ Extraor- 
dinary man ! Genius of the delusive and calamitous theories 



38 

over which the country was to be drencluHl in blood ! It is 
not difficult, at this distance of time, to see, that viewed 
from his stand point, the judgment here expressed by him 
was correct. Mr. Calhoun was too ill to address the Senate 
during the debate, in question, on the compromise measures 
of 1850. The fact is his end was very near. His speech 
was read by Senator Mason, of Virginia, in the midst of 
profound silence on the 4th of March. There followed on the 
7th of March the celebrated address of Mr. Webster of that 
date. Mr. Calhoun was present. He died March 31, 1850. 
Writing about him years afterwards when he had become an 
historical character, Benton observed that his reply to Clay 
on the subject of the independent treasury, in 1838, recalled 
to him the nuisterpiece of oratory by Demosthenes. On the 
occasion, April 1, 1850, of the announcement in the Senate 
of Mr. Calhoun's decease, Mr. Web.ster said he thought that 
there was not one of the Senators who listened to his last ad- 
dress in the body, who did not feel that he might imagine 
that they saw before them a Senator of Rome while Rome 
survived. 

Mr. Clay made his closing speech some six months after 
the introduction of his resolutions. He declared it to be his 
belief, from the bottom of his soul, that the compromise 
would prove the reunion of the Union. It was the dove of 
peace, which, taking its aerial Hight from the dome of the 
Capitol, would carry the glad tidings of assured peace and 
restored harmony to the most remote extremities of our 
distracted land. He appealed to Senators to discard all 
resentment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal 
desires, and forgetting popular fears, from whatever quarter 
they might spring, to think alone of their Cod, their country, 
their consciences and the American Union. 

Referring to Senator Mason, he said: '* Here is my friend 
" from Virginia of whom I have never been without hopes. 
' ' I have thought of the revolutionary blood of George Mason 
" which flows in his veins — of the blood of his own father — 
" of his own accomplished father — my cherished friend for 
" many years. Can he, knowing as I think he must know, 
" the wishes of the people of his own State ; can he, with the 
" knowledge he possesses of the public sentiment there, and 



39 

" of the high obligation east upon him by his noble ancestry, 
" can he hazard Virginia's greatest and most glorious work— 
" that worli at least, which she, perhaps more than any other 
" State, contributed her moral and political power to erect? 
" Can he put at hazard this noble Union with all its beneficial 
" effects and consequences, in the pursuit of abstractions and 
"metaphysical theories— objects unattainable, or worthless 
"if attained— while that honor of our own common native 
" State, which I reverence and respect w4th as much devotion 
" as he does, while the honor of that State, and the honor of 
" the South are preserved unimpaired by this measure? 

" I appeal, sir, to the Senators from Rhode Island and 
" from Delaware, my little friends, which have stood by me, 
" and by which I have stood in all the vicissitudes of my 
" political life; two glorious patriotic little States, which, if 
" there is to be a breaking up of the waters of this Union , 
" will be swallowed up in the common deluge, and left 
" without support. Will they hazard that Union, which is 
" their strength, their power and their greatness! 

" Let such an event as I have alluded to occur, and where 
" will be the sovereign power of Delaware and Rhode 
" Island? If this Union shall become separated, new unions, 
" new confederacies will arise. And with respect to this— 
" if there be any — I hope there is no one in the Seuate 
" before whose imagination is flitting the idea of a great 
" Southern Confederacy to take possession of the Balize aud 
" the mouth of the Mississippi, I say in my place never ! 
" Never! Never will we who occupy the broad waters of 
" the Mississippi and its upper tributaries consent that any 
" foreign flag shall float at the Balize or upon the turrets of 
" the Crescent City— Never— Never ! " 

Senator Barnwell, of South Carolina, having complained 
that expressions had been used by the Senator from Kentucky 
that were not a little disrespectful to a friend of his, Mr. 

Clay replied : 

" Mr. President, I said nothing with respect to the character 
" of Mr. Rhett, for I might as well name him. I know him 
" personally and have some respect for him. But if he pro- 
" nounced the sentiment attributed to liim of raising the 
" standard of Disunion, and of resistance to the common 



40 

" irovernineiit, wliatever he has been, if he follows up that 
" declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor, 
" and 1 hope he will meet the fate of a traitor." 

Senator Barnwell having' brought forward and defended 
the attitude and spirit of the State of South Carolina, Mr. 
Clay resumed : 

^ •' With regard to South Carolina and the spirit of her 
" people. I have said nothing. I have a respect for her; but 
" 1 must say, with entire truth, that my respect for her is that 
'^inspired by her ancient and revolutionary character, and not 
•* so much for her modern character. But spirited as she is, 
" spirited as she may suppose herself to be, competent as she 
" may suppose hferself to wield her separate power against the 
" ]iower of this L'nion, I will tell her, and I will tell the Senator 
" himself that there areasbrave, as dauntless, as gallant men 
*' and as devoted patriots, in my opinion, in every other 
" State, as are to be found in the State of South Carolina 
" lierself ; and if, in any unjust cause, South Carolina or 
" any other State should hoist the flag of disunion and rebel- 
" lion, thou.sands, tens of thousands of Kentuckians would 
" tiock to the standard of their country to dissipate and 
" repress their rebellion. These are my sentiments — make 
" the most of them." 

Again. " If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of 
" resistance. I will never fight under that banner. I owe a 
" ))arani(>unt allegiance to the Union, a subordinate one to 
" my State. When my State is right I will share her for- 
" tune, but if she summons me to the battlefield, or to sup- 
" port her in any cause which is unjust, against the Union, 
" never, never, will I engage with her in such a cause." 

The Compromise bill was familiarly known in the history 
of the day by the name of the (hnnibus Bill, given it by those 
who were opposed to it, being, as they asserted, a com- 
V)iuation of things wholly dissimilar iu one measure and a 
kind of bargain and barter discreditable to the country. 
During the discussion amendments were repeatedly offered 
and voted upon. August 1, 1850, the Senate reached a final 
vote and the bill before it was read a third time and passed. 
But in the shape to which it had been reduced in the course 
of legislation, it provided 07ihj for a territorial government in 



41 

Utah. Thus it happened, that the Compromise measures 
reported for the committee of thirteen by Mr. Clay were lost. 
On the same day he said : 

' ' I stand here in my place meaning to be unawed by 
<' any threats whether they come from individuals or from 
" States. I should deplore as much as any man living or dead 
" that arms should be raised against the authority of the 
'' Union, either by individuals or by States. But after all 
'•^ that has occurred, if any one State, or a portion of the peo- 
" pie of any State choose to place themselves in military 
" array against the government of the Union, I am for trying 
" the strength of the government." 

He proceeded * * * '< Sir, when that is done, so 
•< long as it pleases God to give me a voice to express my 
" sentiments, or an arm, weak and enfeebled as it may be by 
'' age, that voice and that arm will be on the side of my 
*' country, for the support of the general authority, and for 
" the maintenance of the powers of this Union." 

When he was reproached by a Southern Senator for being 
*' a Southerner disloyal to the South, he answered ; " I know 
'^ no South— no North, no East, no West." Again he said: 
" I may be asked, as I have been asked, when I am for the 
"dissolution of the Union. I answer: Never— Never— 
« ' Never ! ' ' 

Bad feeling was rife in the Senate and ran high. Hard 
words were exchanged, and bitter taunts and reproaches 
bandied from Senator to Senator. The effect was to inflame 
the extremists on both sides to exasperation. The temper of 
those of the North was absolutely unyielding, while the dis- 
position of the Southern men of the same order was undoubt- 
edly to fight. Anxiety and alarm filled the air. There were 
clashes between Clay and other Senators. These threatened 
to break out into civil war. They filled many with alarm, and 
made others stand aghast. It is my belief that no one ever 
spoke more eloquently than Clay did in these episodes of the 
great debate which, during the first session of the 31st 
Congress, A. D., 1850, shook the capitol and thundered over 
the country. Enfeebled by the approaches of illness and 
bowed beneath the burthen of age, for he was now an old 



4'J 

man, he added fresh lustre to the fame won by him in his 
earlier efforts, and took rank as the Prince of the Senate. 
In this stormy period of our history he appeared just as he is 
pictured in the verse of Prentice : 

" With voice and mien of stern control, 

" He Ptood anionij the great and proud. 

'* And words of tire burst from his soul, 

" Like lightning from the tempest cloud. 

'• His high and deathless themes were crowned 

•• With glory of his genius born 

•• .•Vnd gloom and ruin darkly frowned 

•' Where fell his bolts of wrath and scorn I" 

Auf,'ust 2, 1.S.30, disappointed, exhau.sted and broken in 
heultii he went to Newport to recover. Au^'ust 6, a bill 
proposing a boundary to Texas, cutting down New Mex- 
ico somewhat more than Mr. Clay had designed passed 
the Senate and gave Texas $10,000,000. Next was passed 
a bill to admit California as a free State. August 1"), 
the bill to establish a territorial government in New 
Mexico was passed, jiroviding that New Mexico when it 
came in as a State, might do so with or without slavery, as 
her constitution might determine, and August li9 the fugitive 
slave law passed. When, in the last week in August, Mr. 
Clay returned to Washington his compromise measures — ex- 
cept the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Colum- 
bia — liad all passed. The bill abolishing the slave trade in 
the District of Columbia passed the Senate, September IG, 
1850. Mr. Clay not only advocated the bill, but profited by 
the opportunity of the debate to state his belief that slavery 
would pass away in the District, and to declare that he icas very 
glad of it. September 30 Congress adjourned, and Mr. Clay, 
much exhausted, sought the repose of home. He had once 
more saved the country from civil war. Daniel Webster, 
writing to a friend and telling him of the crushing weight of 
anxiety and responsibility with which he had been oppressed, 
now announced the return of public confidence and order. He 
said : "It is a day of rejoicing here such as I never witnessed. 
•' The face of everything is changed. You would suppose 
*' nobody had ever thought of disunion." 

Both political parties proceeded to adopt the compromise 
measures as the foundation of their policy. The passage of 



43 

the Kansas-Nebraska act, four years later A. D. 1854, era- 
bodying as it did the repeal of the Missouri compromise, 
when the career of Mr. CUay had been closed by death, 
helped to undo the labors of his life, and opened the way tor 
the revolution which plunged the country into the greatest 
civil war of modern times. 

After the enactment of the compromise acts Mr. Clay con- 
tinued to exert his influence for Union and harmony 
He spoke in Congress, at the last session at which he was 
active, for the taking up the tariff of 1846, and for a river 
and harbor bill appropriating $2,500,000, and then sought 
relief in vain in the climate of Cuba for his broken health. 
When the session of the Thirty second Congress drew near 
its close he went to Washington to take part in it, but was 
never strong enough to go to the Senate Chamber. A dying 
man he spoke in his sick room to Kossuth, the Governor of 
revolutionary Hungary, who sought to enlist the government 
and people of the United States in the cause of his country, 
against the effort, and solemnly warned the people of Amer- 
ica, for the cause of liberty, to avoid the distant wars of Europe, 
and to adhere to our own wise and pacific system. He died June 
29, 1852, in the city of Washington, in the seventy-sixth year 
of his age. The national bereavement found expression in 
the wail of sorrow which overspread the land on the an- 
nouncement of his decease. He was mourned everywhere as 
a statesman and patriot, the benefactor of a grateful people. 
In the heart of the Blue Grass Region, close to his home at 
Ashland, in the beautiful cemetery at Lexington, amidst the 
glories of the costly summer, where nature is untreasured of 
her riches, his earthly remains were, according to his cherished 
wish, laid under the green sod of Kentucky to rest with those 
of her gallant and patriotic sons. 

Time fails me to offer anything here except briefest ref- 
erence to the tributes which men of different political 
parties proceeded to pay to his memory. I give but very 
limited examples of these, and indicate the character of 
them rather than undertake to quote literally from them. 
John C. Breckenridge, a Representative in the House, who 
had suceeded to the Ashland District so long represented by 
Mr. Clay, rising to perform the melancholy duty of anuounc- 



44 

iner the death of the latter, declared that amids^t the p:eneral 
gloom the Capitol itself looked desolate as if the genius of 
the place had departed. He said as a leader in a deliberative 
body Mr. Clay had no equal in America. In him intellect, 
person, eloquence and courage, united to form a character fit 
to command. He would not attempt in speaking of a loss 
wiiicli was national, to describe the burst of griff with which 
Kentucky would receive the tidings. The attempt would be 
vain to depict the gloom that would cover her people when 
they would know that the pillar of fire had been removed, 
which has guided their footsteps from the life af a genera- 
tion. Kichard .1. Bowie, a Representative from the State of 
Maryland, distinguished Clay as the advocate of freedom in 
both hemispheres. He said that the United States mourned 
a counsellor of deepest wisdom and purest p\irpose, mankind 
the advocate of human rights and constitutional liberty. 
R. M. T. Hunter, Senator in Congress from the State of 
Virginia, said, that Clay had beyond any other man he ever 
knew, the mesmeric touch of the orator, the rare art of trans- 
ferring his impulses to others. Thoughts, feelings and emo- 
tions, came from the ready mould of his genius, radiant and 
glowing, and communicated their own warmth to every heart 
which received them. His, too, was the power of wielding the 
higher and intenser forms of passion with a majesty and ease 
which none but the greatest masters of the human heart can 
employ. William H. Seward, Senator from the State of New 
York, said, that the people of the country had unanimously 
acknowledged Mr. Clay as the greatest, the most faithful, and 
the most reliable of their statesmen. Tlie Senator went on to 
declare, that Clay had converted the Senate from a negative 
position into the active ruling power of the Republic. To 
the foregoing I add what was said by Charles J. Faulkner, 
a Representative in the House from the State of Virginia. He 
justly claimed, that in the whole character of Mr. Clay, there 
is nothing to be found not essentially American. His coun- 
try — its institutions — its interest — its d estiny form the ex- 
clusive topics of his speeches, which have all the ardor and 
intensity, the earnestness, the cogency, the vehemency of 
style, and the burning patriotism of the great Athenian 
0-ator. 



45 

Chief Justice Marshall regarded Mr. Clay as second to no 
lawyer in the country. Justice Story thonght he was a jurist 
of extensive attainments and profound ability. President 
Madison considered his name in connection with the highest 
military command when the war of 1812 broke out, and was 
dissuaded from his purpose on the ground only that Clay's 
services were indispensable in Congress. Madison offered 
him the appointment of Minister to Russia, and afterwards 
that of Secretary of War. President Monroe also tendered 
him the office of Secretary of War, and afterwards the mis- 
sion to England. President John Quincy Adams offered him 
a seat on the bench as Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. President Harrison tendered him the depart- 
ment of State, which on his refusal went to Webster. 

Had it been possible for him to have held all the offices 
which I have named, they could not have added to his dis- 
tinction. What Mr. Adams said of his course as Secretary 
of State may be appropriately spoken of the services he ren- 
dered in every public station he actually did fill. To have 
secured the praise of John Quincy Acjams is, of itself, the 
highest honor. Said Mr. Adams : "The Department of State 
"itself was a station which, by its bestowal, could confer 
" neither profit nor honor upon him, but upon which he has 
" shed unfading honor by the manner in which he has dis- 
" charged its duties. As to my motives in tendering him 
" the Department of State when I did, let the man who ques- 
" tions them come forward. Let him look around among the ' 
" statesmen and legislators of the nation, and of that day. 
" Let him then select and name the man whom, by his pre- 
-eminent talents, by his splendid services, by his ardent 
"patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, by his fervid 
" eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, 
" by his long experience in the affairs of the Union, foreign 
" and domestic, a President of the United States, intent only 
" on the honor and welfare of his country ought to have pre- 

" f erred to Henry Clay." 

He was defeated for the Presidency when Mr. Adams 
reached it. When the election devolved upon the House of 
Representatives, Mr. Adams was chosen President over 
General Jackson, by the action of Mr. Clay. His sup- 



40 

])orters were routed by Geueral Jackson iu the cainpaij^u 
of 1S32, and owing to the luacliinations of the Demo- 
crats, and the vote of tlie Liberty Party, he.lost atraiii in 
1844, when James K. Polk was elected. He was deprived 
by political legerdemain of the nomination when William U. 
Harrison received it in 1840, and when Clay's was the largest 
following in the Whig convention; while iu 1848, by the 
abandonment of some who owed him everything that public 
life had bestowed, he was set aside for General Taylor, who 
was virtually without a historv as a party man. He met the 
vicissitudes of his public life with a degree of fortitude that 
was sometimes astonishing, and remained to the end the 
acknowledged leader of the Whig party. He stood loyally 
by his chief when Mr. Adams himself suffered defeat at the 
hands of General Jackson in l"<2s. When Harrison was 
unjustly preferred to him, he declared his intention to sup- 
port him notwithstanding. His sentiment, repeatedly in- 
sisted on, was, that a public man should be prepared to sac- 
rifice his individual interests for the general good. He declared 
that he would rather be right than be President. The result 
of the election in 1844 fell like a heavy stroke of affliction 
upon a great part of the country, but he consoled himself 
with the proud reflection that he had received the support of 
men of honor everywhere and of the chivalrous and patriotic 
throughout the land. Others bowed low over the calamities 
which overlook the Whig party in the administration of 
Tyler and over the errors of policy into which the party fell 
afterwards. He, true to himself as few only know how to be, 
gathered up his jjowers for further devoted endeavor. 
" Holding the principle," he said, "that a citizen, so long 
" as a single pulsation remains, is under an obligation to 
" exert his utmost services in the service of his country, 
" whether iu a public or private station, ray friends may rest 
" assured that iu either condition I shall stand erect, with a 
'• spirit uncouquered while life endures ready to second their 
" exertions iu the cause of Union aud Liberty." Admirable 
and inspiring words! No wonder that Daniel Webster, 
who understood from sympathy and the associations of many 
years the strength of purpose and devotion which animated 
him, appealed to him at one time when he had withdrawn from 



47 

public life, to leave his retirement at Ashland, and come once 
more to the rescue. Webster wrote : " It would be infinite 
'' gratification to me to have your aid, or rather your lead. 
" I know of nothing so likely to be useful. Everything val- 
" uable in the government is to be fought for, and we need 
'' vour arm in the fight." 

Like powers of oratory with those of Mr. Clay have 
not been witnessed in the history of our country. They made 
him unquestionably the congressional leader of his time. He 
was the most magnetic speaker in public life and a popular 
orator of amazing powers. He could touch the finest emotions 
and sensibilities and play on them at will. He could arouse 
the strongest passions and stir them into tempests. He was 
followed with rapt attention. Great multitudes when he 
addressed them fixed their " white-upturned wondering eyes " 
on him, and either shed tears, or yielded to outbursts of re- 
joicing or of enthusiasm according to the mood he chose to 
excite. 

His personal popularity exceeded, as I am well persuaded, 
that of any statesman who has appeared in America since 
the time of Washington. He had a host of devoted friends 
here in New Orleans, where he was seen often on the 
streets ot the city. His affections were warm and true. 
His memory for faces was excellent. He was indeed, noted 
for recalling at once all who had been presented to him, and 
knew admirably how to leave with those who had pleased him, 
an impression of unfading graciousness. He was " to those 
men that sonfjht him sweet as summer. ^^ His constitution of 
mind, as well as of person, fitted him particularly for the 
part of the orator, which in a free government is necessarily 
the most distinguished. He was tall and slender, of com- 
manding and graceful figure, as he is correctly represented in 
the bronze statue before us. The gestures he employed in 
speaking were easy and natural. His'ardent and hopeful tem- 
perament irradiated every feature. His dauntless spirit 
beamed in the kindling gaze of hisclear although rather small 
gray eyes. While he was by no means a handsome man, his 
countenance was an open one, and was expressive and varia- 
ble. Bis forehead was high and broad, tlis mouth was 
large. His voice fell upon the ear with the harmony of en- 
■chanting strains of music. 



48 

Tliomas J. Marshall, of Kentucky, one of the most distin- 
guished public speakers of his day, confident as he declared 
himself of the superior merit of his contention, on one 
occasion, declined to answer Mr. Clay until the magical spell 
wrought l»y the effort of the latter had subsided. Kichard 
H. Menifee whose genius raised in him the proud ambition 
to surpass Clay in forensic discussion, fell untimely in the 
flower of early manhood, stricken by mortal malady in the 
very act of speaking for which he had wound up all his 
powers of body and mind, until they gave way beneath the 
strain. The effect produced by the peroration in the great ar- 
gument of Clay on internal improvements in Congress has been 
compared by Prentice to the thrill of victori/ in the reins. 
Jeremiah Clemens, Senator from the Stflte of Alal)ama, on 
the announcement, A])ril 1, is.jO, in the Senate, of the death 
of John C. Calhoun, when Senators Butler, Clay, Webster 
and Rusk spoke, declared that Clay was the world's greatest 
living orator. Pierre Soule, twice Senator in Congress from 
Louisiana, himself a brilliant orator, giving me a scene pre- 
sented by the Senate of the United States when the compro- 
mise measurse of ISjO were under discussion said, Mr. Clay 
seemed to hold a ichip of scorpions in his hand, with which he 
scourged liis enemies and compelled his followers into the 
ranks. The famous diary of John Quiucy Adams treating 
the subject of the great debate between Clay and Calhoun 
upon the dissolution of the alliance between the latter states- 
man and Clay says: " Clay had manifestly the advantage in 
" the debate. The truth and the victorv were with Clav, who 
** spoke of the South Carolina nullification with such insulting 
" contempt that it brought out Preston who complained of it 
** bitterly. Preston's countenance was a portraiture of agon- 
" izing anguish." 

The leading and paramount object of the public life of 
Clay was declared by himself to be the preservation of the 
Union, or of the peace of our common country under the 
Constitution. It was his unceasing endeavor to promote the 
more perfect union contemplated by the fathers in the begin- 
ning. He could have had no wiser or grander public policy 
to guide him. (xatheriug years have accumulated. Almost 
half a century has elapsed since he closed his high career. 



49 

Throughout the South as well as the North, it is now seen, 
not ouly that his knowledge of American character was pro- 
found, but also that there was no other fortunate issue for 
the people of the United States from their civil war, than 
that which preserved for them one and the same great 
nationality. 

The disposition of the mind of Mr. Clay carried him habitu- 
ally to the right side. Personal considerations, had no weight 
with him in comparision with public duty. He was a stranger 
to the prejudices of sectionalism. The love of liberty burned 
in his breast like a holy flame ! He carried with him and was 
contantly animated by the true spirit of the advice of Car- 
dinal Wolsey to Cromwell as being essential to the usefulness 
and honor of a public servant, where Shakspere makes 
Wolsey say : 

" Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
" To silence envious tongues : be just, and fear not : 
" Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy country's, 
"Thy God's, and truth's." 

"How beautiful," says the prophet (Isaiah, clii, v. 7) 
" upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
" tidings, that publisheth peace." The inspired injunction 
of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews (ch. X, v. 13) was, " to 
follow peace with all men." The General Epistle of James 
(ch. HI, V. 17) declares that " the wisdom that is from 
above is first pure, then peaceable." The message sent from 
God Himself by His angel and a multitude of the heavenly 
host, (St. Luke, ch. II, v. 14) freighted with the best hopes 
that our fallen race has been allowed to cherish, is "peace 
and good will to men." 

If there is difficulty in understanding what the bless- 
ings of peace really signify, it can not be here in New 
Orleans, where there are still so many whose sight has 
been seared by the ravages of civil war. I will not call 
the black catalogue of those ravages, nor do I mean to 
refer to the losses and waste, to the violence, the blood- 
shed and crimes, and to the ruin and desolation of that 
appalling fratricidal struggle, except to award to Henry Clay 
the wonderful credit which is his due, of having shown far 
beyond any other public man of the period, the wisdom 



50 

and conrajje to postpone it, nnd of liaviiii; striven most de- 
votedly of all. to avert it alto«rether. He nnderstood perfectly 
the folly and n)adness of the policy of secession. He foretold. 
with prophetic insij;ht into tlic American disposition and 
destiny, the awful consequences which the baneful attemi)t to 
secede would brin^ with it. 

In the arrangements of Divine Providence differences lion- 
orably settled lead to clo.ser friendships. History is full of 
proofs of the assertion. Nationalities arc not destroyed by 
civil stru^'^Mes, but rather ccnuMited by them, and at the close 
inviiroratcd by the vicissitudes they are condemned to underfjo. 
In England, the contest for the throne cau.sed the War of the 
Roses. Imt the war ended with the union of I bury VII as the 
representative of the House <»f Lancaster, and Elizabeth of 
York. The Wed Ko.se was blended with the White. The thirty 
years religious war which swept over and desolated Germany, 
was concluded by the treaty of WestplmliM, recognizing for- 
mally, at least, principles of religious toleration. The war in 
England between the Hou.se of Stuart and the Roundheads, 
in the end settled most firndy the liberties of the British 
Kealm, and seated William and .Mary upon the throne of 
a Constitutional Monarchy. In the stormy period of 
French history. La Vendee was visited by lire and the sword, 
but rose from its ashes and contributed to the growth and 
con.solidation of the French Enipire. Our own great country 
is destined to add, or rather has already added a fresh ex- 
ample to those T have just cited; and Henry Clay, it is not 
to be doubted, felt that this would be the case. He was 
deeply imbued with the belief that the preservation of the 
Union as the sole guaranty of American rights, interests, liber- 
ties and honor, was worth every sacrifice. 

Lord Chatham declared that he had read Thucydides and 
studied and admired the master states of the world. That 
for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity and wisdom of 
conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circum- 
stances, no nation or body of men could stand in preference 
to the Congress at Philadelphia; and Senator Benton, taking 
up his observation, has added that if Chatham had lived to 
see a later day, and the men of Benton's time making them- 
selves exceptions to the maxims ot the world and finishing the 



51 

Revolution, and all with the same wisdom, justice and mod- 
eration and decorum with which they be^an it, even his lofty 
genius would have recoiled from the task of doing them 
justice. 

Let us, fellow-eitizens, in our own time and in our sev- 
eral places, do our parts also. Let us, in closing the cere- 
monies of this day, render thanks publicly to Heaven, not 
only for the example of the fathers and for that of the suc- 
ceeding generation which took up their work and carried it 
worthily forward, but let us do so in particular, on the pres- 
ent occasion, for the life and services of Henry Clay as a 
patriot, statesman and orator, and as an illustrious man of 
splendid gifts and glorious memory, the champion of freedom 
and of American Union. Realizing fully that the extinction 
of slavery was the removal of a great evil from the Republic, 
and rejoicing that there is at this time no impediment to its 
progress, let us welcome, with proud and grateful hearts, 
the prospect before our dearest country, of being first in the 
arts and sciences, as well as in wealth and power, of the 
nations of the earth. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







II 


II II III 

d 



011 895 255 



m 



\ 



